Shadow King (Legion)
Amahl Farouk, also known as The Devil with the Yellow Eyes '''and the '''Shadow King, appears as the overall main antagonist of the FX-original Marvel television series Legion. He is a demonic parasite, seeking to take control of David Haller's body and use his reality-bending abilities for sinister purposes. He is an adaptation of the X-Men villain known as the Shadow King. He is portrayed by actor Quinton Boisclair in his standard form, by Aubrey Plaza while taking the form of the late Lenny Busker, by Devyn Dalton while taking the form of the Angry Boy, and by Navid Negahban in season 2. Biography Origin The Devil with the Yellow Eyes is a centuries-old parasite-like creature that seemed to originate from the Astral Plane, a dimension of reality that can be accessed by a powerful telepathic mutant. Through unknown means, he came to confront Professor Charles Xavier, the leader of the X-Men and a powerful telepath. He was able to defeat the Devil, but was unable to destroy him. At another point, he met the people working at the Summerland facility (or at least Cary Loudermilk and Oliver Bird, who call him "Farouk"). Seeking revenge and desiring to come to the real-world and become more powerful, he tried to locate Xavier's son David Haller, who was capable of controlling reality. Xavier had him sent away for his protection, later adopted by the Haller family, but the Devil held onto him and manifested himself in several forms, including his "dog" King and his friend Benny. However, he was only ever visible to David, as his sister Amy Haller says that they never had a dog named King. Eventually, David, unaware of his powers and considered very dangerous, is diagnosed with schizophrenia and sent to Clockworks Psychiatric Hospital for treatment. There, David met Lenny Busker, another patient, whom the Devil would manifest himself as in David's memories later on. ''Legion'' Chapter 1 The Devil is first hinted at in a vision that David has, which depicts himself eating what appears to be black tape, as a voice says "The Devil with the Yellow Eyes". The Devil first gets his chance to latch onto David's powers when he and fellow mutant Sydney "Syd" Barrett accidentally switch bodies. While David ends up in Syd's body (as physical contact with her causes her to switch bodies with whoever she touches) and is confused, Syd ends up in David's body. The Devil, seeing the opportunity, manages to get Syd to expel David's powers, causing people in the building, including David's friend Lenny Busker, to be pulled through the walls of the building. Lenny, meanwhile, ends up getting stuck in the wall, killing her and causing blood to cover the wall. Later when Syd and David's minds are somehow put back where they belong, David is freed by a band of mutants after being captured by Division 3 and brought to a mutant safe haven known as Summerland, run by mutant Melanie Bird. Chapter 2 David, seeking to better understand his powers, is put into a room with Melanie and Ptonomy Wallace, where Ptonomy takes them through David's memories, seeking to find proof that he has mutant powers. While sorting through the memories, David meets Lenny Busker, who appears to be present in his memories through unknown means (she is really a manifestation of the Devil). In his memories, they find that David had previously taken drugs with "Lenny" in order to drown out the voices he hears due to his telepathy. While the three observe the memory, David's present self hears the Devil's sinister laugh. He then steps in through the kitchen door, glaring at David with an evil grin, while Ptonomy and Melanie are unable to see him. Later, David is put into an MRI scanner in order to determine how his powers work. As he lies there in silence, he sees a vision of Amy at Clockworks, but she's in danger. He then looks up to see the Devil there, who looks down on him and grabs his legs, trying to pull him out of the machine; David then screams in fear and anger, causing the Devil to disappear and the MRI to be teleported outside Summerland. Chapter 3 While they examine David's memories again, Ptonomy and Melanie find that David is being haunted by strange apparitions, including Lenny. During one of the memory searches, Lenny speaks to David and tells him that he doesn't seem to be too worried about Amy, who they know to have been kidnapped by the mutant named Walter. While Ptonomy and Melanie look through his memories, having heavily-sedated David in order to avoid resistance from his mind, they debate whether or not some of David's memories are actually real; some of them were actually made-up by the Devil in order to isolate him further so he can gain control of him. Ptonomy and Melanie end up being chased by a manifestation of the title character from the "children's book", The World's Angriest Boy in the World, who is really just the Devil again, and follows after them trying to scare them into leaving David's mind. In the process, they are forced to exit David's mind, while David himself ends up in the Astral Plane. Chapter 4 David's mind ends up putting up a figurative psychic shield around itself to prevent Ptonomy from entering his mind again. Now that David has become stuck in the Astral Plane, he finds himself seeing a man in a diver's suit; he follows him up a ladder into an icy cube room, where he meets the diver suit man, Oliver Bird, Melanie's husband. He says that he's become stuck in the Astral Plane after spending so much time there. While David is concerned that something might happen, Oliver tells him that the Devil, whom he calls "the Monster", cannot enter the ice room; indeed, outside the room, the Devil tries to enter to no avail. David later leaves the ice room so that he can use his powers and hopefully return to the real world. Meanwhile in the real world, Amy is still held prisoner by Walter/The Eye, where she meets David's former psychiatrist Poole, who tells her of how he'd suspected David's powers. Amy says that she'd hear him talking to himself as a child, and he claimed to be talking to "King", his dog; however, she says that they never had a dog. In truth, King was another manifestation of the Devil, who was tampering with David's memories. While in the Astral Plane, David is confronted by "Lenny" again, who tells him that he needs to return to the real world in order to save Amy from Walter. "She" also manifests a see-through illusion of David's childhood room, trying to annoy him and get him to scream and unleash his powers. Eventually, she manages to do exactly that, causing David to return; however, the Devil manages to assume more control this time. Chapter 5 David has now returned from the Astral Plane, but the Devil has a more-secure connection to him. He creates an illusion of a white room to be used in conjunction with Syd so that they can actually touch each other without her powers having any effect. However, while they are in the room, they fail to notice that an imaginary bowl of strawberries is being eaten by several leech-like bugs, no doubt manifestations of the Devil. The Devil then uses David's desire to save Amy as his own way to take control of his body; at that point, David, now under the Devil's control, arrives at Division 3 and uses his reality-warping powers to trap security guards underneath the floors or even disintegrate them entirely, killing everyone that tried to stop him. He finds his way to Amy, but she ends up getting kidnapped instead by "David", while Poole is left behind. At David's childhood home, he tells Amy of what he's experienced over the past few days, at which point she reveals that he was adopted. Back at Division 3, Ptonomy, Melanie and Syd find that Poole has been left there and all the guards are dead. To make matters worse, Cary Loudermlik, Summerland's lead scientist, examines the MRI done on David earlier and finds himself looking at the Devil's true form. He makes contact with the others and tells them that the Devil is a parasite that infected him, likely in his childhood, and is the source of his schizophrenia. At David's home, Ptonomy, Melanie, Syd Cary and Kerry Loudermilk enter, only to find that "David's" power has blocked out all the sound from the house, forcing them to use hand signs to communicate. The Eye also arrives after having followed them here. The Angry Boy manifestation appears again and tries to kill them when they enter the house. Walter shoots at David and Syd, and thus David takes them both to the white room again, where he holds a banjo in his hands and recites the first verse of The Muppets' song "Rainbow Connection". The Devil then walks in and stares down Syd while the whole room turns red, as the Devil laughs menacingly and walks towards Syd, who tries to run away from him. David does nothing during all this because of the Devil's influence over him. As bullets start flying, the Devil seemingly-freezes time with everyone inside. Eventually, they all find themselves in an illusion of Clockworks, where they are all patients while Lenny (the Devil) is their doctor. Chapter 6 Lenny probes everyone in order to learn about their innermost feelings; she learns that Walter was "developing slowly" as a teen, and his actions in the present are to make up for it. While Syd walks through the hallways of the illusion, she sees a strange door in one of the walls which occasionally disappears without explanation. In this door, Lenny is really "partying" and celebrating her control over David by showing up in the Summerland lab (another illusion, presumably) and smashing objects, showing much "he" enjoys having David's powers. While speaking to David, Lenny tells him of how she thinks of the life-cycle of an ant fungus, saying she thinks of it when she thinks of what "love" is. She intimidates him with claims of how she's always been connected to him, ever since being a fetus, and how his real father (Charles Xavier, saying aloud "Talk about an asshole" while describing him) failed to keep him from her. She then becomes the Devil while whispering into David's ears, terrifying him. In addition, Syd comes to realize that she's in an illusion; while trying to eat a slice of pie, she freaks out upon seeing the leech-like creatures from the white room strawberry bowl in them, most-likely the Devil's attempt to intimidate her. Meanwhile, Cary finds himself in Oliver's diving suit, where he appears to Melanie at night, presumably to save her and everyone else and bring them back to the real-world, threatening the Devil's current state of victory. Chapter 7 David becomes trapped in a mental coffin by Lenny to prevent him from fighting back, while Oliver Bird and Cary Loudermilk attempt to find a way to change the events happening in the real-world; given that bullets were flying at David and Syd just as time stopped, it meant that the Devil did it in self-defense. They get Kerry and Melanie out of the illusion (they also openly-call the Devil "Farouk", confirming that he is the Shadow King). Meanwhile, David is calmed-down by his more rational half, who speaks to him and tells him to imagine being in a classroom; after all, this is his mind and he has all the power. David then appears in a classroom of sorts with a wall covered in chalkboard, which he then uses to draw out what he has come to realize about his past and about the Devil. The chalk-animated cartoons that he puts together display what he assumes to be the battle between the Devil and Professor Xavier, and how he'd been given away to the Haller family for his own protection. The Devil, however, still found him anyways and infected him like the parasite he is, draining his powers to fuel his own and gain the power to alter reality itself. While Syd, Kerry and the others try to escape the illusion by going through the disappearing door, the Devil appears as Lenny and chases after them in the hallways. The hallways become silent as the scene turns black-and-white and becomes like a silent-era TV series, with a character's dialogue appearing as a box on the screen. While Lenny chases after them, "she" uses telekinesis to kill Walter, who was trying to escape with the others, crushing him down into a blood-covered, broken-boned body (Walter also became this in the real-world, emphasizing the Devil's power). Upon noticing Oliver in the real-world trying to form a telekinetic shield around Syd and Barrett, Lenny exits the illusion and attacks Oliver, then returns to the illusion to kill the others. However, David, having freed himself from his prison, uses his powers to alter the illusion and send the Devil into his mental prison, freeing everyone from it. Cary puts a device on David's head that locks the Devil in the coffin, keeping him trapped as long as he had it on. After they all return to Summerland, however, they are confronted by armed guards led by Clark, one of the Division 3 agents who held David captive in "Chapter 1". Due to the fire that had been started last time he was seen, he is covered in burn marks. Meanwhile, the Devil manages to break open his mental coffin. Chapter 8 David uses his powers to stack the guards on top of each other, then takes Clark into Summerland to speak with him. Cary attempts to use the technology at Summerland to remove the Devil from David's head; Syd enters the white room again while the Summerland team questions Clark, finding that Lenny has taken a zombified form with white skin, messed-up hair and torn-apart clothes. Lenny tells Syd that the only way "she" will leave David forever is if "she" decides to do it, and given his power, "she" had no intention of doing so. Syd leaves the white room as the Devil tries to grab onto her. David is then strapped into the laboratory again, surrounded by a laser grid and machines developed by Cary, with the purpose of expelling "Amahl Farouk" from his head. With the machine turned-on, David finds himself in an illusion room with many of his memories playing as though on a movie screen right before his eyes. The zombified Lenny appears as David questions what he'd be without "her" there in control of him; even still, he knew he had to get rid of the Devil. Lenny tells David in a demonic voice "I'm...not...leaving!", and attempts to fight back against the machine. Syd, in an attempt to stop the Devil from getting control of David again, kisses him, causing the Devil to enter Syd's body. The Devil then enters Kerry's body by making Syd touch her. As Kerry, the Devil attempts to flee from the scene, fighting off Wallace and knocking out Melanie, and runs through the hallways. Clark hits "Kerry" with his walking stick, only to be blasted back by "her" powers. David appears in the hallways and charges a telekinetic shield around himself, running towards "Kerry" while "she" charges "her" own shield. When the shield make contact, they are both blasted back, with the Devil sent out of Kerry's body and straight into Oliver, who leaves in a car. As they realize that Oliver has disappeared, the Summerland mutants attempt to find out where he is; meanwhile, a non-zombified Lenny sits in the car with Oliver as they drive south, presumably to confront Professor Xavier or Division 3, holding a paper plane in "her" hands. Season 2 ??? Personality Most of the personality of the Devil with the Yellow Eyes seems to be derived from his primary manifestation, Lenny Busker, who seems to like annoying people and not taking things seriously. The Devil has so far shown that he enjoys having so much control over David as he has, being a parasite, and is not above deceiving him to get what he wants. He can take advantage of David's most-basic instincts in order to trick him into doing what he wants him to do. Seeking power for power's sake, the Shadow King only leaves David's body after finding his way to Oliver Bird, a more-powerful telepath than David. Powers *'Telepathy': Farouk has vast telepathic powers, which grant him numerous different abilities. He is able to invade, manipulate and sense the minds and thoughts of others, as well as transmit his own thoughts. He was able to communicate with Syd in the astral-projected room created by David due to having interacting with her mind previously when she switched bodies with David. **'Astral Manipulation': Farouk used this power when he battled David Haller's father on the Astral Plane. He also used this ability to construct an elaborate illusion of the Clockworks Psychiatric Hospital, capable of trapping several people, including several powerful psychics such as David Haller and The Eye, a Mutant working for Division Three. His power over the realm allowed him to telekinetically affect the environment, such as immobilizing Kerry and Sydney, as well as controlling Walter’s motor skills and forcing him to walk backward. Additionally, he was able to contort Walter’s body in Astral Plane, simultaneously killing him in the real world. When confronted by Oliver Bird’s attempts to assist the Summerland mutants attempts to contain him with a psychic dampening helmet for David, he demonstrated being able to forcibly send him back to the real world. ***'Astral Projection': Farouk is able to travel to the Astral Plane and meet with David. Oliver and Farouk where able to project themselves over to Melanie to manipulate her and eventually teleport her away with them. **'Mental Sedation': Farouk is able to incapacitate and render people unconscious without causing any harm to them. While possessing Kerry Loudermilk, he was able to knock Melanie to the floor just by using his hand and imitating a gun pointing at her, and once reunited with his true body, he was able to knock out Clark and mulitple Division 3 agents effortlessly. **'Memory Manipulation': Farouk was able to alter David’s memories, causing him to forget his presence whenever David noticed. He also managed to implant fake and altered memories in David, in an effort to hide his presence. Farouk was also able to overwhelm the memory manipulation abilities of Ptonomy Wallace, being able to prevent him from viewing certain memories, as well as temporarily trapping him, Melanie Bird, and Sydney Barrett in David’s memories. **'Consciousness Absorption': After she was killed by Sydney Barret inhabiting David's body after accidentally swapping bodies with him due to David's attempt to kiss Syd, Lenny Busker's consciousness was absorbed by Farouk and used as a "mask" to conceal his true identity. Even after taking possession of Oliver, Farouk was still able to control Lenny's consciousness and kept her imprisoned within the Astral Plane when he was not "using" her. **'Possession': Farouk can embed his consciousness within the minds of others, and can only be removed by his own volition, or by being removed through Sydney's mind-switching power. Hosts of the Shadow King sometimes manifest yellow eyes when possessed, though others (such as David and Oliver Bird) have normal eyes. While possessing David and Oliver, he was capable of influencing their perception of reality, memory, actions, and behavior without having to fully take control of them, as he did to David for years. When disembodied in the real world, he appeared as a black shadowy mass that was able to have some effect on his surrounding, colliding with Oliver and sending him flying across a room while possessing him and causing a gate behind him to shut. *'Reality Warping': As one of the most powerful pyschics known, After possessing David and feeding off him for 30 years Farouk has the power to manipulate reality at will. When Farouk, in Oliver Bird body entered Division 3, he turned one agent into a pig and another into a fish. He was also able to make bullets unable to harm him, even when multiple gunman where firing at him at close range as well as make himself appear to grow to towering heights. Additionally, his use of Lenny's form was able to pull Cary through a the floor and into another room and causing a spoon to emit a shockwave when she tapped it. He was also seemingly able to create a giant drain stopper and several several video screens within the maze his body was kept. He was shown to be powerful enough to somewhat resist power dampening technology that was placed on his body when he was captured by Division 3, as he was able to summon a mouse and have it whisper into Syd's ear, apparently to reverse the alterations to her mind and memory done by an increasingly unhinged David. **'Aura Generation': During his fight with David while controlling Kerry's body, Farouk was able to generate a red and black aura of energy around himself. **'Matter Manipulation': When Amahl, in Oliver's body entered Division 3, he disintegrated several Division 3 agents with a mere thought. He was also able to manipulate Cary and Kerry's mutation and trap the former within the others body, eventually leading them to become separate individuals. **'Inanimation': When Farouk's projection of Lenny tapped a spoon, the shockwave from it caused Kerry to be frozen in place, completely unable to move. **'Teleportation': Under Amahl co-piloted Oliver's body, he eventually was able to cause Melanie to appear physically with them in the desert where the former's true body was. *'Telekinesis': Farouk can move, control and otherwise exert force on objects arround him with his mind. Whilst possessing Kerry Loudermilk , Farouk flung Clark DeBussy aside after he attacked him. When restored to his physical body, he used his power to hold the power dampening tuning fork known as the Choke in the air before throwing it nearly a mile away. **'Levitation': Farouk is able to seamlessly move through the air through concentration. Gallery Lenny-Legion.jpg|Shadow King as Lenny. Lenny-and-David.jpg|Shadow King Lenny and David. Lenny-zombie.jpg|Lenny in "Chapter 8". Sydney-Possessed.png|Shadow King possessing Sydney. Navid_Negahban_as_Amahl.jpg|Amahl in season two. Season_2_production_stills_(2).jpg Trivia *According to Noah Hawley, the part for Lenny Busker had been written for a middle-aged man; actress Aubrey Plaza was cast instead due to her acting ability as the Devil. The character's dialogue had apparently been re-written so that Aubrey could do the role as both male and female. She apparently based her performance mainly from the late David Bowie. *The appearance of Lenny appears to become more-distorted and grotesque as the series continues; initially, the Devil's Lenny form resembled her perfectly. However, as the Devil's control over David grew stronger, Lenny came to resemble the Devil's true form more and more, so that by "Chapter 8", "she" resembles an ugly white zombie with white skin and a fixed posture. *Saïd Taghmaoui was originally cast as Amahl Farouk but exited the role for unknown reasons during the production of season 2. 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